April 7, 2008 – BC Head Coach and High Performance Director Richard Wooles attended the recent 2008 UCI Track World Championships in Manchester, UK, held at the newly resurfaced track at the Manchester Velodrome from March 26-30. Britain dominated the championships winning nine gold medals and Wooles, who rode for Wales and Great Britain and worked for the Great Britain Cycling Team at two Olympic Games.

How was it to go back home to Manchester for the track Worlds?
RW: I’m not sure Manchester was ever home, but I enjoyed catching up with people that work for all the National teams and seeing how things have moved on with the GB Team and the Team at the UCI. The main reason I was there was to see if I could help Zach & Gina, as this was the last event before the places are given out for the Olympic Games.

So what do you think the outcome is?
RW: Well, we will have to wait until the 14th of April for confirmation from the UCI to the NOCs of the number of places obtained. but it looks good for both of them. The plan was for both of them to first meet the goal of qualifying a place. It is very hard on all of the riders to fly around the world picking up points; you never really have time to build form. The bigger track teams can use different people can prepare a bit better, so it has been hard going for all the track riders this year.

What is the big difference between Canada and some of the top track countries?
RW: Having a plan that everyone is part of and buys into is a big part of it. People think the difference is money, and yes we do need real funding here, but the thing that will drive the riders forward is having goals that they need to achieve and commitment from both parties.

Looking at the team from the outside is a real eye opener for me. It makes me really motivated to work even harder to build a plan for the next 4, 8, and even 12 years for track and Canadian Cycling.

What are you doing about this now?
RW: We are building our numbers from the bottom up in BC. We have a Youth Coach who’s sole goal is to get more kids interested in our sport. I spend 1 or 2 days a week working with the U19 riders at the track here in BC nearly all year round. We are working hard to find funds for the riders to help with the costs of doing more international races. We help with FREE coaching and support for any junior rider who has agreed to a goal of trying to make the Worlds for Canada, and this is includes for BMX, Road, Track, MTB Cross Country, MTB Downhill, and Cyclocross. This all comes under the goals we have set out for the next 4 years.

Looking and reading the reports on the websites how do you see things now at the CCA and the track team?
RW: Where to start! Everyone can see that things can be better; but we all need to help to move things forward. We should start thinking about development: set goals of top 10’s, and support riders that we think can achieve results in the next 2-4 years. Build plans and set markers for them and the coaches to reach, and then help them get there. It is easy to blame people or the situation, but I believe we must keep looking forward and plan for a better tomorrow. We can be competitive now in many of the events just run at the Worlds, for instance the Women’s Team Pursuit, Men’s Omnium and Women’s Team Sprint are a few that come to mind straight away. Let’s start with the easy wins and work our way up. We have Junior Teams in BC riding Team Pursuit and Madison, and I can see in the years ahead we can take some of these riders to bigger and better events.

So what’s next?
There is always a light at the end of the tunnel, it may be very dim here at the moment but it looks like the same one as when I was riding for GB 20 years ago. I’m looking forward to the Canadian National Anthem at the Track Worlds in the years ahead, rather than the GB one!